


Wet dog and old books

by makerofaqueen



Series: The moon to my star [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Coming Out, M/M, The Marauders - Freeform, love potion, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-09-05 14:57:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16812964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makerofaqueen/pseuds/makerofaqueen
Summary: The boys have decided it's about time to come out as a couple to their friends, but then, surprise surprise, they have to brew love potions in class.Remus is, of course, freaking the fuck out.





	Wet dog and old books

**Author's Note:**

> This has been a long time coming.
> 
> Rated teen and up for language.

Sirius crashed his lips into Remus’ and kissed him with a hunger that had been brewing for _days_. It had been a long time since they had had some time on their own. They were always surrounded by friends and still hadn’t made their relationship official. Not that Sirius didn’t want to. Oh Merlin he wanted to.

The two boys made out for a while in the empty transfiguration classroom until they had to pull apart to breathe. Remus was sitting on a desk and Sirius was standing between his legs. They had finally managed to slip out without being noticed but they couldn’t be gone for _too_ long before either James or Peter would realize they were missing.

‘We need to tell them,’ Remus said. He was looking at the wall over Sirius’ shoulder when he did, unable to meet his boyfriend’s gaze. It was a habit of his when he was uncomfortable.

‘I know,’ Sirius said. He’d been arguing that for weeks but Remus hadn’t been ready to let their friends in on their relationship. Despite what he said when they were alone, Sirius knew his boyfriend was scared of the repercussions of dating someone of the same gender. Because there would be repercussions.

‘Do you want to do it right away?’ Sirius continued with asking. He knew the answer, of course, but he thought he might as well ask. Remus might surprise him yet.

‘No, I’m not ready to do that. I want to tell James and Peter first, when we’re alone.’

‘Sure. Just tell me when.’

‘Tonight? After dinner? Tomorrow is…’ Remus made a face. Sirius knew damn well what tomorrow was and he also knew that after tomorrow there would be several days before Remus felt good enough to talk to his friends about a serious matter such as this again.

‘We’ll do it after dinner,’ he decided.

‘James is suspecting something.’

‘Yes. He asked me the other day who I was seeing and when I said no one he called me a liar. Then he proceeded to ask if I knew who _you_ were seeing. He doesn’t seem to have managed to connect the dots just yet.’

‘Good. I don’t want them to find out any other way than _us_ telling them.’

‘You’re absolutely right about that. Besides, this sneaking around business is getting on my nerves.’

‘Mine too.’

Remus kissed him again, then he leaned his head on Sirius’ shoulder and sighed.

‘We need to get to defense class. We were late to that yesterday. It’s starting to get suspicious.’

‘Yes, you’re right. Come on,’ Sirius said. He held on to Remus’ hand all the way to the door and only let go once he had to open it to peek out and see if the coast was clear. It was.

\---------------------------------

Last class of the day and they were making love potions. Remus was freaking out, because of course this just had to happen. Him and James were partnered up, as were Sirius and Peter. Remus was meticulous about getting his potions right, which was one of the reasons James always wanted to partner up with him. James was terrible with potions, but Lily was on his ass about getting good grades and he wanted to impress her. Sirius didn’t give a fuck about potions, and neither did Peter, so as far as James was concerned, they could fuck it up together.

‘I think it’s done,’ Remus said cautiously before he stepped back. ‘You smell it.’

James leaned in and sniffed the smoke slowly rising from the cauldron.

‘It smells like… flower, I think?’

‘Flowers? Can you be more specific?’ Remus asked. He was jutting down notes on his report. ‘I don’t know… I’m not a botanist.’

Remus looked at James with a raised eyebrow.

‘Well, lilies, I guess,’ James said. ‘Obviously,’ he added rather unnecessarily.

‘Mhm,’ Remus hummed while he wrote.

‘Well, you smell it.’

‘I’m not going to be smelling your flowers, Potter. It’s supposed to be different from person to person.’

‘Oh. Right. Of course,’ James said and sniffed it again. ‘Well, lilies, and… I think cinnamon? Does she like cinnamon?’

‘I don’t know and I’m putting that down in the report,’ Remus mumbled and wrote some notes on his parchment.

‘Alright, your turn,’ James said.

Remus leaned in and sniffed the potion.

‘I smell… leather,’ he said cautiously. ‘And something…’ he started saying before he pulled back with a disgusted look on his face. He frowned.

‘Smells like wet dog,’ he grumbled.

‘Wet dog? We must have fucked it up somehow, I knew it. I’m terrible with potions,’ James sighed.

Remus heard Lily snort from one desk over to his right.

‘Well, if you’re smelling wet dog you sure fucked up, Lupin,’ she said. The laughter in her voice was barely contained.

‘Shut up Evans,’ was Remus’ very eloquent retort.

James looked at the love of his life.

‘Don’t tease us,’ he grumbled.

‘I wasn’t teasing you, sweet cheeks,’ she said. ‘I was only teasing Remus. You did good.’

She went over and kissed James on the cheek when their professor wasn’t looking. Remus was blushing into his notebook. Somehow, he always managed to forget that Lily Evans always knew fucking everything.

Of course, she knew the three of them were animagi.

Of course, she knew Padfoot was a dog.

Of course, now he was screwed.

Things went from bad to worse that very moment, when, from three benches over to his left, Sirius said, rather loudly:

‘Ugh, it smells like mold or something. We must’ve fucked up, Pete.’

Remus blushed even deeper, making the white scars on his face _very_ visible, because he knew that Sirius wasn’t smelling mold. He was smelling old books. It was something they had always bickered about, ever since they were very little and first became friends. Sirius would complain that Remus’ books smelled bad and then Remus would retort with: ‘It’s an old book. It’s _supposed_ to smell like that!’

‘Of course we did,’ Peter said. ‘Mine doesn’t smell anything.’

Lily Evans, of course, knew this as well, because the girl literally knew _everything_.

‘Old books, huh?’ she said under her breath to Remus who was shaking at this point. He caught Sirius’ eye across the room. Sirius jutted his head towards Lily and Remus nodded. It was almost not a nod, more a blink of his eyes, but Sirius understood.

‘You don’t look so good,’ James said, placing a hand on Remus’ shoulder. ‘Is it the…’ he gestured vaguely to the roof of the classroom, indicating the sky.

‘Yeah, I guess,’ Remus mumbled.

‘Wanna go lie down before dinner? I can clean up here.’

‘Uhm. Yeah. Sure.’

‘Lily can walk you. I’m not comfortable leaving you alone. You look like you’re about to pass out. Evans!’

\-----------------------------

That’s how Remus found himself being escorted to the Gryffindor common room arm in arm with Lily Evans, the girl who had just figured out he was having a gay romance. Or something.

‘So…’ Lily said once they were out of earshot from the classroom. ‘That was an interesting lesson, don’t you think?’

Remus didn’t answer. He merely sighed and kept his eyes on the floor, but he could feel Lily watching him. After a little while he said:

‘Out with it, Evans.’

‘Nothing to out,’ she said, and then added: ‘pun not intended.’

‘Surely not.’

‘Okay, so I’ve been wondering for a while, if there’s anything going on between the two of you, but I haven’t had any proof.’

‘And I guess now you do.’

‘You’re lucky neither James nor Peter are very clever,’ she laughed. ‘Otherwise it would have been obvious.’

Remus actually snorted a little.

‘It’s a blessing and a curse,’ he said. Lily bumped their shoulders together.

‘How long has this been going on?’

‘A few months. It’s getting increasingly difficult to hide.’

‘I can imagine. Sharing a dorm like that.

‘Mhm.’

‘Oh Merlin,’ she said with glee, ‘you’re roommates!’

‘Don’t.’

‘It’s _beautiful_.’

‘No. It’s _difficult_ is what it is.’

‘You’re so glum.’

‘Well, I’m dating one of my best friends and I’m scared to tell people because I know both of us will get shit for it.’

‘Yeah, well, there’s that,’ she agreed. ‘But you know I’ll beat the shit out of anyone who gives you shit.’

‘I know.’

‘But I think you’ll do well to tell the boys soon because it’s only a matter of time before James figures it out. He knows both of you are dating _someone_ , he just can’t imagine you might be dating each other. Yet.’

‘Which only shows how dense he is, because A: he already knows Sirius is gay and B: Sirius isn’t exactly subtle with his PDA when we’re in the dorm. I have to swat him away like a fly.’

Lily grinned.

‘My boyfriend is an idiot.’

‘Mine, too,’ Remus chuckled softly. Then he gave Lily and scared look. She stroke his cheek.

‘I like it,’ she said. ‘I think the two of you would be cute together.’

Remus nodded thoughtfully.

‘We were actually talking about telling them tonight, since tomorrow is… you know. You don’t think… you don’t think you could be there? You seem so cool with it, maybe that will help the others… uhm… you know.’

‘Of course I can. I’d do anything for the both of you.’

‘Thanks Evans.’

\------------------------------

Remus was simply resting and Lily was reading a book on James’ bed when the three of them came up to the dorm a little while later. Sirius went to sit on Remus’ bed, by his feet, and leaned his back against one of the bed posts. Lily hid her grin in her book before she arranged her features and put it down on James’ nightstand.

‘I asked McGonagall to send dinner up since you’re not feeling well,’ James said to Remus while he sat down next to Lily on his bed.

‘How nice of you,’ Remus mumbled.

‘That’s how good of a friend I am. Oh, and we got top grade for our potion. I kept arguing that something was wrong with it but no, professor said it was all good.’

‘Yeah, about that…’ Remus started.

‘I can’t imagine why you would smell wet dog…’ James continued.

Meanwhile Lily had started grinning again.

‘She knows,’ Sirius said. He raised one eyebrow at Lily who nodded. ‘How long have you known?’

‘I’ve had suspicions for a few weeks, but I got them confirmed today. Honestly, one of you smell wet dog and the other smell old books. It’s kind of a no brainer.’

‘I don’t get it,’ James said.

Lily gestured towards James as if he just proved her point, which Remus figured he kind of did. Meanwhile, Sirius had morphed into Padfoot and then shimmied his way up Remus’ bed. He placed his ragged, black, furry head on Remus’ belly, so the other boy could scratch him behind the ear. They both found that relaxing and anxiety reducing. Padfoot fixed James with his brown eyes. He felt Remus draw a breath under his head and then he said:

‘We smelled _each other_ , you bloody moron.’

James looked at Remus and Padfoot, then he looked at Lily who nodded and smiled.

‘You’re… in love?’

‘Wow Potter, you can be kind of clever when you try very hard,’ Remus deadpanned.

‘But… you’re both… guys…’

Padfoot lifted his head and growled next to Remus on the bed.

‘Easy…’ Remus mumbled and scratched his neck.

Padfoot seemed to frown, if dogs could really do that, but settled his head back down on Remus’ upped body.

‘Well…’ he said. ‘What Pads is _trying_ to say, is that he came out to you years ago, so it shouldn’t really be a surprise that _he’s_ dating a guy.’

‘Uhm…’ James said.

‘I mean, I knew he liked boys, but I never thought he would actually, like, _date_ one,’ Peter said. James nodded, as if Peter had said something really clever. This earned him a smack over the head from Lily.

‘What?’ he asked exasperated.

‘Your best friend tells you that he’s gay and your immediate thought is that the poor bloke will be alone forever because of it? I’m breaking up with you,’ she said flatly.

‘Aww Evans, come on, I didn’t mean it like that. But I thought you like girls?’ he asked, looking at Remus.

‘Turns out I’m not that black and white,’ Remus mumbled. Padfoot nuzzled his wet nose into the palm of his hand.

‘How long…’ Peter started.

‘A few months,’ Remus said.

The door opened and a handful of house elves came walking in with plates for the five of them. Once they had left again, and Sirius had turned back into his human form to eat, James said:

‘Well, obviously it’s okay with me, us, so go ahead.’

‘We weren’t asking for your permission, we were merely informing you, but whatever,’ Sirius said with an angry look at James.

‘Yeah, of course. Sorry.’

‘Oh you’re just full of great, politically correct comments today, aren’t you Potter?’ Lily said and rolled her eyes.

‘I’m trying!’ James exclaimed.

‘So, about tomorrow…’ Sirius started.

‘What about tomorrow?’ James asked.

‘Are we… are you… will you still help out?’

‘Yeah, I mean… nothing’s _really_ changed, right?’ James asked.

‘Not for me, no,’ Sirius said. ‘But I was kind of worried that you guys might… you know… because of…’

‘Oh, Pads, that’s two entirely unrelated issues,’ James said. He looked at Lily as if to get confirmation that he’d said the right thing this time and she nodded and stroke his cheek. The boy actually purred with contentment. 

\---------------------------

‘I think that went… I was about to say well, but it didn’t. But it didn’t go entirely to shits either,’ Remus said as he sat down next to Sirius on the roof. Sirius had been gazing out over the treetops. Now he turned and slung his arm around his boyfriend’s waist.

‘No, I guess it didn’t go entirely to shits,’ he smiled. ‘Do you want to take on the rest of Hogwarts tomorrow?’

‘Might as well. It’s going to come out eventually. If we can be cool about it, it might be easier.’

‘Does that mean I can hold your hand when we walk in to breakfast tomorrow?’

Remus eyed Sirius, then he chuckled softly.

‘Yeah, it means you can hold my hand when we walk in to breakfast tomorrow.’

**Author's Note:**

> Please tell me what you guys think, and please come visit me at makerofaqueen on tumblr.
> 
> If there are any prompts for this series you guys would like to see, don't be shy about telling me! I need help with ideas :)


End file.
